Keywords
Speciation
IUCN Red List
Western Ghats.
How to Cite
Abstract
The Western Ghats of southern India are home to four endemic laughingthrush taxa belonging to genus Strophocincla, currently lumped as two species, namely Black-chinned Laughingthrush Strophocincla cachinnans and Kerala Laughingthrush Strophocincla fairbanki - each of them with two races, namely jerdoni and cachinnans for the Black- chinned, and fairbanki and meridionale for the Kerala Laughingthrush. All of them inhabit montane ecosystems exclusively above c. 1,200 m and have been of great interest for speciation studies as they are strictly allopatric as their ranges are separated by valleys with unsuitable altitudes. This paper describes the morphological and geographical differences between these four races and proposes a case for considering each of them as an independent species based on the ‘quantitative criteria for species delimitation’ method. Based on this methodology, the forms jerdoni and meridionale were found to differ from cachinnans and fairbanki respectively, by scores sufficient to be ascribed a full species status. In the wake of this status change, the IUCN Red List criteria were applied to all four taxa and S. jerdoni was evaluated as Critically Endangered and S. meridionale as Endangered. This new found threat level is expected to catch the attention of forest departments and policy makers to advocate specific conservation actions to arrest the decline.References
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